Maria Dayton

Biographical Details
"Ms. Dayton is a DC based activist who specializes in democracy, civil society, and human rights issues in the Middle East. She has extensive experience developing, implementing, and assessing various development projects with the United Nations and other local organizations in many countries including: Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar, Israel/Palestine, and Rwanda. As a project manager for the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development studies in Cairo she worked closely with the director and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, in the development of many civil society programs including: the 2005 Election Monitoring project, the Egyptian Democracy Support Network, and the founding of the Arab Democracy Foundation in Qatar.

"As the founder of the DC based organization Voices for a Democratic Egypt (VDE) her current work includes the development of regional governance programs and advocacy efforts targeting US policy makers. She holds a BA in International Studies and Biology and MAs from both France and Egypt in International Relations, International Economic Development, and Middle East Studies."